The Midwife’s Apprentice

Here’s another great Medieval tale by Karen Cushman. On a frosty morning sometime early in the fourteenth century, in a village somewhere in England, a girl known only as Brat was sleeping on a dung heap.

“You, girl. Are you alive or dead?”

When she opened her eyes, she saw an important-looking woman with a sharp glance and a sharp nose and a wimple starched into sharp pleats. This woman was Jane the Midwife, and she needed a helper . . .

Thus begins the funny, wise, compassionate story of the homeless waif who became the midwife’s apprentice — a person with a name and a place in the world.